Inside Athletics

Hugh P. Flynn '33 (Football, Boxing, Basketball, Track)

Inducted 1978

Hugh “Bingo” Flynn of Worcester, Mass., was selected
by CUA’s student newspaper, The Tower, to two early
all-time CUA athletic teams (football and track). He also competed
in basketball two seasons and boxed a year.

Flynn played freshman football under Eddie LaFond, the legendary
Cardinal boxing coach and athletic director. In his first year on
the varsity (1930), he found himself playing on the offensive and
defensive lines for CUA’s all-time winningest football coach,
Dutch Bergman.

After a 1-8 debut, Flynn helped the Cardinals to a 14-2-1 ledger
over the next two seasons. Included among the team’s success
was a school-record 11-game winning streak. The Cardinals outscored
their opponents, 320-45, during the run.

Flynn’s blocking helped classmate Tommy Whelan – the
greatest running back in school history – attain All-American
status. The 1932 Cards went 6-1-1, and Flynn’s defensive work
was instrumental in CUA allowing only 21 points all year, including
five shutouts.

“Possessed of a physique of one hundred and ninety-five
pounds of bone and muscle, he is a delight to the eye of the most
critical sculptor. To Coach Bergman he has shown himself as a tower
of strength in his position on the line as tackle, and his absence
from the varsity next year will leave a vacancy which will be hard
to fill.” – 1933 Cardinal yearbook.

Flynn was chosen one of two second-team guards when The
Tower compiled its All-Time Football Team in 1935. The
Cardinals at that point had been putting a team on the gridiron for
40 years. In 1941, Flynn appeared on the newspaper’s All-Time
Track Team, one of three men chosen for throwing the discus 132
feet. He was also a shot putter and president of the Class of
1933.

Flynn worked for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., and in
1943 was elected president of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the
CUA Alumni Association. He was a member of the D.C. Touchdown
Club’s Board of Governors and president of the Football
Officials’ Association of Washington, as well as a member of
the Knights of Columbus.